9,524 research outputs found
The emotional valence of subliminal priming effects perception of facial expressions
We investigated, in young healthy subjects, how the affective content of subliminally
presented priming images and their specific visual attributes impacted conscious
perception of facial expressions. The priming images were broadly categorised as
aggressive, pleasant, or neutral and further subcategorised by the presence of a face and
by the centricity (egocentric or allocentric vantage-point) of the image content. Subjects
responded to the emotion portrayed in a pixelated target-face by indicating via key-press
if the expression was angry or neutral. Priming images containing a face compared to
those not containing a face significantly impaired performance on neutral or angry targetface
evaluation. Recognition of angry target-face expressions was selectively impaired by
pleasant prime images which contained a face. For egocentric primes, recognition of
neutral target-face expressions was significantly better than of angry expressions. Our
results suggest that, first, the affective primacy hypothesis which predicts that affective
information can be accessed automatically, preceding conscious cognition, holds true in
subliminal priming only when the priming image contains a face. Second, egocentric
primes interfere with the perception of angry target-face expressions suggesting that this
vantage-point, directly relevant to the viewer, perhaps engages processes involved in
action preparation which may weaken the priority of affect processing.Accepted manuscrip
USEM: A ubiquitous smart energy management system for residential homes
With the ever-increasing worldwide demand for energy, and the limited available energy resources, there is a growing need to reduce our energy consumption whenever possible. Therefore, over the past few decades a range of technologies have been proposed to assist consumers with reducing their energy use. Most of these have focused on decreasing energy consumption in the industry, transport, and services sectors. In more recent years, however, growing attention has been given to energy use in the residential sector, which accounts for nearly 30% of total energy consumption in the developed countries. Here we present one such system, which aims to assist residential users with monitoring their energy usage and provides mechanisms for setting up and controlling their home appliances to conserve energy. We also describe a user study we have conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this system in supporting its users with a range of tools and visualizations developed for ubiquitous devices such as mobile phones and tablets. The findings of this study have shown the potential benefits of our system, and have identified areas of improvement that need to be addressed in the future
Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on construction projects
The changing face of construction projects has resulted in a movement towards the use of technology as a primary means of communication. The consequences of this rise in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) is a loss of interpersonal communication skills. A number of resulting issues within the human â electronic and human â human interfaces are identified in an attempt to define the efficiency of communication in projects. The research shows how ICT effects the social environment of construction project teams and the project outcome. The study seeks to confirm the need for further work in order to develop new forms of communication protocols and behaviour. An initial literature review was undertaken to develop a theoretical review of the impacts of ICT on construction project teams. This review identified a number of issues that were then tested in the field through an observation and two verification interviews. The research confirms the existence of tensions and conflicts in the human â electronic and human - human communication interfaces within the studies environment. It is proposed that the increasing use of ICT occur at the expense of soft system communication. The principal impact of this is a form of âhuman distractionâ which adversely affects the performance of project teams. There is limited theory exploring these issues that suggests the problems identified are not well understood and consequently indicates a gap in knowledge
Exploring nonconscious behaviour change interventions on mobile devices
Modern cognitive psychology theories such as Dual Process Theory suggest that the source of much habitual behaviour is the nonconscious. Despite this, most behaviour change interventions using technology (BCITs) focus on conscious strategies to change peopleâs behaviour. We propose an alternative avenue of research, which focuses on understanding how best to directly target the nonconscious via mobile devices in real-life situations to achieve behaviour change
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A multilevel conception of intentionality : the effects of unconscious information on counselor\u27s conceptualizations, intentions and responses.
Interpetative thinking and impression formation in a prisoner's dilemma game.
In three experiments we examined the notion that interpretative thinking guides impression formation when playing a prisoner's dilemma game. In a first experiment, we demonstrated that an interpretation goal is spontaneously triggered upon receiving ambiguous information about an interaction partner in the context of a prisoner's dilemma game. In Experiment 2, we examined whether in this context accessible knowledge is used as an interpretation frame for judging the interaction partner. Indeed, we found that subliminally primed extreme person exemplars led to an assimilation effect in person judgment in a prisoner's dilemma game, whereas they led to a contrast effect when person judgments were made in a control condition. Finally in experiment 3, priming a comparison goal before entering a prisoner's dilemma game led participants to use subliminally presented extreme exemplars again as a standard of comparison in the judgment of an interaction partner.Information; Knowledge;
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